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Compared to classical music, folklore and electronics,

reggaeton causes greater activation

in the brain regions responsible for processing not only sounds, but also movement.

This is demonstrated by a study carried out by Canarian researchers that analyzes the brain activity produced by listening to different musical styles.

The study is part of the doctoral thesis of the neurosurgeon of the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Jesús Martín-Fernández,

who has worked in the research together with the neuroscientists

Iballa Burunat,

Cristián Modroño, José Luis González-Mora

and

Julio Plata-Bellod.

The neuroscience of music has recently generated significant attention, but the effect of the style of music on the activation of the auditory-motor brain regions has not yet been explored, explains

Jesús

in an interview with EFE.

THE STUDY

The project arose when Julio Plata suggested Martínez-Fernández do his thesis on the brain and music.

For the research, 28 people without previous musical training were selected, with varied musical tastes and an average of 26 years.

The study was carried out at the

IMETISA research center,

attached to the Hospital Universitario de Canarias, where, firstly, tests were carried out to analyze musical abilities with an ear test, on the one hand, the ability to discriminate melodies and on the other, rhythmic phrases.

Subsequently, a functional magnetic resonance was performed while the participants listened to various musical styles from which the lyrics were eliminated.

Some of the musical clips used were in reggaeton Shaky by

Daddy Yankee

and Ginza by

J Balvin

;

in electronics Passion by

Alberto Feria

and L'amour toujours by

Dzeko

, in classical the concert in E minor by

Vivaldi

and the minuet of the airs in D by

Luis Cobiella

, and in folklore folías and malagueñas canarias.

The lyrics of the clips were removed with the intention of "studying the music processing in the purest possible way," the neurosurgeon explained.

Daddy Yankee in the video clip Shaky Shaky.YouTube

The researchers analyzed the brain of each participant anatomically and then the BOLD signal, which consists of seeing which areas of the brain recruit oxygen and through software they were represented with different colors depending on whether they were more or less activated.

RESULTS

Was the

reguetón which showed increased activation

in regions of the brain that process sound (auditory areas) and process the movement (motor areas), some differences were higher when compared with classical music.

In fact, this is

the first study in the scientific literature

that compares reggaeton and classical music and therefore we have to wait to continue the investigation.

Electronics also showed greater activation of motor regions,

but significantly less compared to reggaeton "and what most caught our attention was the activation of a primitive region of the brain: the basal ganglia."

They are groups of neurons that are responsible for modulating posture, starting and ending a movement ... in addition to being involved in the reward or pleasure system, the researcher says.

The greater activation caused by reggaeton implies that there are more auditory and motor brain regions that are activated and therefore there is more machinery working to process the music.

According to the researchers, this activation may be due "to the generation of an internal pulse within us when trying to guess when the next pulse is coming.

It is as if reggaeton, with that peculiar and repetitive rhythm, prepares us for movement,

to dance only by listening to it ".

In addition, reggaeton uses chords in a predictable way and has a rhythm that does not vary throughout the song.

Classical music, on the other hand, is much more complex, with much greater tonal and melodic variety and with a much less marked rhythm and therefore less predictable, according to Martínez-Fernández.

With these results "opens a door" to investigate more, both about music and its global processing in the brain and to see how this same experiment affects patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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